ALBERTVILLE, AL -
To crack down on illegal immigration, the mayor of Albertville wants city police officers to receive special training.
Mayor Lindsey Lyons applied for six to eight Albertville police officers to receive 287(g) training with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While it's illegal to work here without citizenship or proper work visas, the city can't detain anyone on those grounds.
"It's just a delegation of authority, presently we do not have that," Police Chief Benny Womack says. "Local law enforcement has no authority to arrest for the charge of illegal immigration."
That's up to ICE. But with the 287(g) training, Albertville police officers would have dual power as an immigrations enforcer.
"The officers that are trained to do this would be able to do the paperwork, and custody be transferred to ICE," Womack says.
The key goal is to identify businesses that are hiring illegal immigrants and remove them from the workforce.
"Employers, and in particular industries, have never been held accountable for the influx that they brought into our state, Mayor Lyons says.
Their focus is illegal immigrants involved in other illegal activity, like drug trafficking, and say this is an additional tool to get those people out of town-- and out of the country.
But Alvaro Earlington, a legal immigrant from Panama who ministers to the Hispanic community, thinks the police and immigration officials should be separate entities.
"I think police are trained to get people that are doing things against the law. They are trained to pursue these people and get them. But I don't think they should be in immigration," Earlington says.
He worries people who are just doing their jobs here but don't have proper paperwork will be targeted. But the mayor and police chief say that is not the case.
"We won't use the system to go out and just do racial profiling and look at appearance and pull the Hispanic population over just to see if they're illegals," Mayor Lyons says.
But they will be inspecting hiring practices, and if an illegal immigrant commits another crime, it will expedite the process with U.S. Immigration officials.
Mayor Lyons says he is also working with Congressman Robert Aderholt and Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby to get the funding to bring an ICE office to Marshall County.
The nearest regional agency is in Gadsden.
Mayor Lindsey Lyons applied for six to eight Albertville police officers to receive 287(g) training with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While it's illegal to work here without citizenship or proper work visas, the city can't detain anyone on those grounds.
"It's just a delegation of authority, presently we do not have that," Police Chief Benny Womack says. "Local law enforcement has no authority to arrest for the charge of illegal immigration."
That's up to ICE. But with the 287(g) training, Albertville police officers would have dual power as an immigrations enforcer.
"The officers that are trained to do this would be able to do the paperwork, and custody be transferred to ICE," Womack says.
The key goal is to identify businesses that are hiring illegal immigrants and remove them from the workforce.
"Employers, and in particular industries, have never been held accountable for the influx that they brought into our state, Mayor Lyons says.
Their focus is illegal immigrants involved in other illegal activity, like drug trafficking, and say this is an additional tool to get those people out of town-- and out of the country.
But Alvaro Earlington, a legal immigrant from Panama who ministers to the Hispanic community, thinks the police and immigration officials should be separate entities.
"I think police are trained to get people that are doing things against the law. They are trained to pursue these people and get them. But I don't think they should be in immigration," Earlington says.
He worries people who are just doing their jobs here but don't have proper paperwork will be targeted. But the mayor and police chief say that is not the case.
"We won't use the system to go out and just do racial profiling and look at appearance and pull the Hispanic population over just to see if they're illegals," Mayor Lyons says.
But they will be inspecting hiring practices, and if an illegal immigrant commits another crime, it will expedite the process with U.S. Immigration officials.
Mayor Lyons says he is also working with Congressman Robert Aderholt and Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby to get the funding to bring an ICE office to Marshall County.
The nearest regional agency is in Gadsden.
